Cloud services provide organizations with rapid systems integration and reduce management, operation, and maintenance costs. Although depending upon the systems/application area, the use of cloud services may not be the optimal choice for enterprises. Up until 2009, vendors promoted cloud services as the most suitable solution for all enterprises' needs. However, at present, an increasing number of vendors advocate to choose the right cloud services by workload, taking into consideration the enterprise's scale and industrial sector, the systems/application area, and the appropriateness of deployment models (public/private, etc.). Choosing the right cloud services by workload deepens an enterprise's understanding of cloud computing, thus further promoting the use of cloud services. The Japan cloud services market will continue its strong growth with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.5% in 2009–2014 and IDC Japan forecasts its market size to reach 153.4 billion yen in 2014, which is 4.9 times larger than in 2009.

In previous years, the challenge faced by vendors was to attract users by showing the superiority of cloud services in comparison with existing IT deployments, such as on-premises and hosting services. However, with deeper understanding of cloud services among enterprises and an increasing number of vendors offering cloud services, differentiation among cloud services has gained importance. According to Mr. Satoshi Matsumoto, research manager, IT Services, IDC Japan, one of the characteristics of cloud services is self-service, facilitating the users' access to the service and eliminating the need for complicated procedures. Self-service also reduces the sales administrative costs incurred by vendors and improves user convenience. However, many enterprises are using face-to-face sales and support, therefore self-service may actually impede the infiltration of cloud services. Vendors need to reinforce measures to promote the use of self-service. Such measures are also a good opportunity to showcase the superiority of cloud services.

For more details, refer to Japan Cloud Service 2010–2014 Forecast Update (IDC #JP1972809S, December 2010). This study provides an analysis of the Japan cloud services market trends and forecasts the market size by segment for the 2010–2014 period.

Note: The market forecasts in this study focus on what is generally known as public IT cloud services.